Generally, treatments of Paul’s speech note biblical parallels to Paul’s wording but find no further significance to these biblical allusions. This study argues that Luke intends far more through this use of the Scriptures of Israel beyond merely providing sources for Paul’s language. I contend that, through the narrative technique of "framing in discourse", Luke uses the Scriptures of Israel to lead his audience to interpret Paul’s speech as standing in continuity with anti-idol polemic of Israel’s prophets in the past. As such, read as historiography, Luke’s narrative uses this continuity to legitimate Paul’s message and by implication, the faith of Luke’s audience. Luke’s use of the Scriptures here is ecclesiological.

Israelâ€™s Prophets Meet Athensâ€™ Philosophers 203
that Paulâ€™s speech is couched in such a way that its ideas would
resonate, for the most part, with a pagan audience, I am considering
only scriptural intertexts in Paulâ€™s speech. There are no specific
quotations from the Scriptures of Israel, so this study will focus more
on echoed scriptural traditions (13). These intertextual echoes should
not be discounted as unimportant because they are not scriptural
quotations. Lukeâ€™s recounting of the annunciation of Johnâ€™s birth in
Luke 1 reverberates with scriptural intertexts, and those intertexts have
a significance far beyond simply giving the narrative a biblical style or
tone (14).
a) Worshipping the Unknown god: Acts 17,23
Beginning with 17,23, Paul declares to the Athenians that they
worship God ignorantly. Their worship practices are flawed because
they do not understand Godâ€™s true nature, which Paul will describe in
part in the speech. Paul will present God as revealed to Israel through
the Scriptures, the God the Athenians worship incorrectly because they
do not know his true nature. Paul is being more delicate than Isaiah,
but like Isaiahâ€™s anti-idol polemic, echoed later in the speech, Paul is
saying that the Atheniansâ€™ knowledge of the true God is defective, and
therefore they worship him but do so incorrectly. This motif of the
nations not knowing God is common in the Scriptures of Israel. For
example, while the focus of the passage is on judgment on Judahâ€™s
neighbors, Jeremiah refers to the nations that do not know God: â€œPour
out your wrath upon the nations that do not know you and the peoples
who do not call upon your nameâ€ (Jer 10,25). The psalmist also speaks
of those who are ignorant of God: â€œpour out your wrath upon the
nations that do not know youâ€ (Ps 78,6) (15). In Isa 44,8-9, the prophet
mocks those who, ignorant of the true God, worship nature instead.
Isaiah continues this polemic in the next chapter, attacking those who,
lacking knowledge, pray to gods that cannot save (Isa 45,20). Isa 45,14
says that the nations that currently do not know YHWH will come to
(13) This means that it is not necessary to hunt for the specific text that Paulâ€™s
speech alludes to in a given passage. Rather, it is likely valid to hear many
intertextual echoes from the Scriptures of Israel throughout this speech. I am not
contending, therefore, that in any specific statement in Paulâ€™s speech that
Paul/Luke necessarily had a particular verse in mind.
(14) See J.B. GREEN, â€œThe Problem of a Beginning: Israelâ€™s Scriptures in Luke
1-2â€, BBR 4 (1994) 61-85; and LITWAK, Echoes of Scripture in Luke-Acts,
91-150.
(15) See DUBARLE, â€œLe Discoursâ€, 580.